Community-based architecture in Penobscot Bay

Island Design Assembly brings together a team of students, architects, and educators for eight intensive days to design, build, and install a project for an island community in Penobscot Bay, Maine. We think of it as architecture at its best.

We live and work together for the week on an off-the-grid island. From 2012 to 2015, the IDA team was home-based on Bear Island, while executing projects for Hurricane Island, Islesboro Island, and North Haven Island communities. In the summer of 2016, IDA began operating on Hurricane Island, the former summer base camp of the Maine Outward Bound School and now the home of the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership.

We intentionally conduct this program on a rugged island an hour’s boat-ride from the mainland, with no running water or utilities, because it strips life down to the essentials. Everyone on the team has to be mindful of how we use limited resources. If we forget something, we can’t run to the store and get it. Everything needed on the island comes by boat. Meals are made with food that comes from local farms, from the surrounding waters, and from the island itself. It is a self-sufficient and inter-dependent way of life, if only for a week.

No experience with design or construction is necessary.

IDA is run by McLeod Kredell Architects (visit HERE). Student participants may consider the experience a professional externship with the firm.